VEDA’S

JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL) Vol.5 Issue 4

An International Peer Reviewed Journal 2018
http://www.joell.in

RESEARCH ARTICLE

ECO-CRITICISM, ECO-THEORY AND TEACHING OF LITERATURE

Noushad PM
(Department of English, HKRH College, Uthamapalayam, Tamil Nadu.)

ABSTRACT
The article attempts a brief survey of the eco-critical theory and its
relation with teaching of literature. It also examines how eco-criticism differs
from the other critical approaches, and examines the difference between green
studies’ and ‘nature studies. Eco-criticism plays a major role in the study of
human association with nature. Eco-literature is a kind of literature that uses
ecological holism as its ideological basis. Eco-criticism excavates, analyses and
criticizes the ecological ideas implied in the literary texts. Eco-criticism
combines subjects of ecology, eco-philosophy, ecological ethics and eco-politics
etc.

Keywords: Eco-criticism, Eco-theory, Nature, Literary texts, Eco-literature.

Author(s) retain the copyright of this article Copyright © 2018 VEDA Publications
Author(s) agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License 4.0 International License .

INTRODUCTION special interest in exploring and considering how a

Eco-criticism and eco-theory explore the
relationship that exists between human beings and
the natural environment. An eco-critical reading of
literary text will usually examines the manners in
which human beings and the natural environment
interact, influence, and counter each other. Eco-
theoretical and eco-critical readings of literary texts
tend to focus on how pollution and environmental
destruction is examined and considered in literary
texts, as well as how humans are depicted as
interacting with their natural dwellings, as well as
animals, the wilderness, and the earth as a whole. A
number of eco-critics and eco-theorists have shown a
number of modern and post-modern writers imagine
natural and environmental apocalypses. In terms of
literary studies, most eco-theoretical readings of
literary texts focus on contemporary and 19th
century texts which actively and directly explore the
relationship that exist between human beings and
the natural world.
THE ORIGIN OF ECO-CRITICISM AND ITS
DEFINITION
Eco-criticism emerged as a study of the
relationship between literature and the natural
environment in the mid 1990. Eco-criticism is a term
derived from Greek words Oikos and Kritis. "Oikos"

66 Noushad PM
 VEDA’S
JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL)
An International Peer Reviewed Journal
http://www.joell.in
means "household", a nexus of humans, nature and
the spirit. "Kritis" means judge, "the arbiter of taste
who wants the house kept in good order" (Howarth,
1988: 163). However, their basic concerns being
similar, the various approaches generally focus on
the relationship between man and the earth. Eco-
criticism is the study of literature and environment
from an interdisciplinary point of view where all
sciences come together to analyze the environment
and arrive at possible solutions for the correction of
the contemporary environmental situation. With its
interdisciplinary nature, eco-criticism forms a strange
interface between the sciences and the humanities.
Eco-criticism was officially heralded by the
publication of two seminal works written in the
1990s, The Eco-criticism Reader (1996) by Cheryll
Glotfelty and Harold Formm and The Environmental
Imagination (1995) by Lawrence Buell. William
Rueckert who coined the term eco-criticism in 1978
in his essay "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in
Eco-criticism", wrote that eco-criticism entailed
"…application of ecology and ecological
concepts to the study of literature, because
ecology has the greatest relevance to the
present and future of the world we all live"
(The Eco-criticism Reader, 1996: 107).
HOW ECO-CRITICISM DIFFERS FROM OTHER
APPROACHES
The common literary critical analysis
presents the external (characters, objects) as the
internal (as the elements of the subconscious). Eco-
criticism expands the notion of "the world" to include
the entire ecosphere. An eco-critical reading of a
literary text is, simply, one which in some way
incorporates the kind of issues that have been
discussed above. Therefore, a study that gradually
shifts from "Inside" to "Outside" is termed Eco-
criticism. In contrast to the above, the eco-centered
reading focuses on the outside, the house and its
environs, rather than the inside (author and his
psychology). It uses the ideas of energy, entropy
(which is a kind of negative energy within systems
which tend towards breakdown and disorganization),
and symbiosis (living together, mutually sustaining,
co-existing systems. In other words, literary theory
examines the relations between writers, texts, and
the world. In most literary theory "the world" is
synonymous with society - the social sphere.
ECO-CRITICISM, GREEN STUDIES AND NATURE
WRITING
According to Peter Barry, eco-criticism
began in the USA in the late 1980s and Green studies
in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. Eco-
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2018
criticism has existed in the USA for quite a long time,
and takes its literary bearing from the 19th century
American writers whose work celebrates nature, the
life force, and the wilderness as manifested in
America, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller and
Henry David Thoreau. All the three writers are
members of the group of New England writers known
as the Transcendentalists. Emerson's first short book
Nature (1836) is a reflective essay on the impact of
the natural world upon him often spoken in words of
powerful dramatic voice. In this work, Emerson talks
about the mystical unity of nature and urges his
readers to enjoy a relationship with the environment.
Fuller's first book was Summer on the Lake (1843), a
powerfully written journal of her encounter with the
American landscape. Thoreau's Walden (1854) is an
account of his two year stay (1845-47) in a hut he had
built on the shore of Walden Pond. The book centers
on dropping out of modern society and seeking to
renew the self by a 'return to nature'.
GREEN STUDIES
The American idea of the picturesque is
rooted in the British aesthetic theory, hence we need
to learn about its development in Europe before
discussing its influence on the new world. Eco-
criticism or Green studies in the United Kingdom take
its origins from the American Transcendentalism of
the 19840s, and the British Romanticism of the
1790s. Jonathan Bate of Romantic Ecology:
Wordsworth and The Environmental Tradition (1991)
is the founding figure of this new field in Britain. The
study on eco-criticism in the United Kingdom is much
less extensive than in the United States of America,
though the study is introduced in schools of higher
education.
Romantic eco-critics examine the ways in
which romantic writers and thinkers participated in
and responded to the history of ecological science
and environmental ethics. A collection of essays by
Laurence Coupe, The Green Studies Reader: From
Romanism to Eco-criticism (2000) shows the
evolution of eco-criticism from Romanticism in
United Kingdom. And this is given the name "Green
Studies" the term "Green Studies" is thus used by the
British writers while the American writers use the
term "eco-criticism"
NATURE WRITING
The word nature comes via old French from
the Latin 'natura'. In the imaginative literature of the
18th century, nature meant the presentation and
construction of the actual characters of people
corresponding to reality. Since pre-Christian or the
Vedic time nature has always been accorded the
status of the Great Mother. In Christianity there is
 VEDA’S
JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL) Vol.5 Issue 4
An International Peer Reviewed Journal 2018
http://www.joell.in

the implication that nature is created for human 3. The text shows humans as accountable to
beings who are her children. Interest in the study of the environment and shows any actions they
nature writing and in reading literature with a focus perform which damage the eco-system.
on "green" issues grew through the 1980s and by the 4. Environment is the process rather than a
early 1990s eco-criticism has emerged as a static condition.
recognizable discipline within the literature Eco-critics investigate such things as the underlying
departments of the American Universities. ecological values, what precisely is meant by the
Reviving the romantic sensibility in poetry world nature, and whether the examination of
William Wordsworth chose wild nature as backdrop "place" should be distinctive, category, much like
of his poems. One could say that it was he who class, gender or race.
pioneered “nature” writing. In Wordsworth, the self
communes with nature. Two of the most important REFERENCES
works of eco-criticism in the 1990s were the studies [1]. Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to
of Wordsworth and Shelley. The concerns of "nature Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester : Manchester
UP, 2002.
writing" are 18th topographical writing the scenic [2]. Buell, Laurence. The Environmental Imagination.
sublime' and the "countryside". Cambridge : Harvard UP, 1995.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NATURE AND [3]. Glotfelty, Cheryl!. Introduction. The Ecocriticism Reader
: Landmarks In Literary Ecology. Ed. Cheryll Glotfelty
CULTURE and Harold Fromm. Athens U of Georgia Press, 1996.
Eco-critics reject the notion that everything [4]. Howarth, William. "Country Books, City Writers :
is socially or linguistically constructed. For eco-critics America's Rural Literature." National Rural Studies
nature really exists, out there beyond us. There have committee : A Proceedings. Hood River, Ore., 24-25,
May 1988 : 11-21.
been set-piece confrontations on this issue and some [5]. Rueckert, William. "Literature and Ecology : An
of the most heated exchanges have taken place Experiment in Ecocriticism." The Ecocriticism Reader :
between the American Wordsworth critic Alan Liu Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Ed. Cheryl Glotfelty and
and various eco-critics, including Jonathan Bate and Harold Fromm. Athens U of Georgia P, 1996. 105-123.
Terry Gifford. The issue of the social and linguistic
construct of reality has tended to generate
confusion. It is a fact that attitudes to nature vary,
some of the variations are culturally determined.
ECO-CRITICISM - TEACHING OF LITERATURE
Eco-critics re-read the text from an eco-
centric perspective and identify the natural world.
They apply a range of eco-centric concepts, using
them of things other than the natural world - such as
growth and energy, balance and imbalance and
sustainable or unsustainable uses of energy and
resources. They give special canonical emphasis to
writers who foreground nature as major part of their
subjects. They extend the range of literary critical
practice, reflecting topographical material such as
essays, travel writing, memories, and regional
literature. They turn away from the 'social
constructivism' and 'linguistic' determinism to
ecocentric values of ethical responsibility.
HOW TO EVALUATE A TEXT
Lawrence Buell suggests four criteria for
evaluating a text for its environmental consciousness:
1. The non-human dimension is an actual
presence in the text and not merely a facade
- thus implying that human and non-
human worlds are integrated.
2. The human interest is not privileged over
everything else.

68 Noushad PM